Ewan McGregor -“…he took preventative action before starring on Broadway last year, tweeting about his use of an app called Conquering Anxiety.”

Laurence Olivier –” ..suffered five years of agonising dread following a press night in 1960,when he found his voice diminishing and the audience “beginning to go giddily around”….The venerable Sybil Thorndike gave him trenchant advice “Take drugs, darling, we do”!

So why aren’t you on the list?

Well, I bet it’s because you have your own techniques for minimising the problem.

Here are three recommended techniques …

1. Don’t take drugs, and don’t take alcohol either.

2. Remember you’ve got a message you want your audience to hear, and they, if they’ve been given a free choice to attend, want to hear it. Enjoy the recognition they’ve given you, just by turning up!

3. Use your nerves to your advantage. Let them fuel your preparation. Prepare, prepare and prepare, so that when you stand up to present you have no regrets.

Final word and a bonus piece of advice from the pianist Steven Osborne, also on Susannah’s list…“Chiefly he urges a sense of proportion – “Ask yourself; when I’m on my deathbed, will I still care about the fluffed note in bar 14”!